The present invention relates to an internal combustion engine and particularly, to an opposed piston engine with a unique pre-compression pump.
A unique internal combustion engine is set forth in my U.S. Pat. No. 3,999,523 which discloses an opposed piston engine with two pistons mounted on opposite ends of a piston rod which, in turn, is pivotally coupled to one end of a rocker arm. The rocker arm is coupled to an eccentric drive mechanism and to the engine block by pivot means which allows lineal movement of the rocker arm during operation. This patent also discloses a second set of two opposed ignition pistons mounted at opposite ends of a second piston rod which is interlinked with the rocker arm in order to reciprocate parallel to the first set of pistons. A pair of counterbalance arms are pivotally coupled to the engine block and to both the rocker arm and the ignition piston linkage so that the counterbalance arms reciprocate in opposition to the reciprocation of both sets of pistons. This engine design will produce a relatively high power output while maintaining high efficiency in order to provide good fuel economy and low pollution emissions.
One feature not associated with the engine of my prior U.S. Pat. No. 3,999,523 is that the engine did not provide an independent means for forcing a fuel/air mixture into the combustion chamber associated with the igniter pistons, and therefore, required the ignition pistons to both force the combusted gases from the combustion chamber after ignition and to draw a new charge into the combustion chamber prior to the compression stroke. This method of fueling the combustion chamber will not insure complete exhausting of combusted gases and will reduce the efficiency of drawing in a new charge. Nor did my prior engine utilize joints and connections which allow large assembly tolerances in order to be adaptable to modern assembly line manufacture.